Where those associated with Western films from around the world are laid to rest.

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

RIP Patricia Medina

Actress Patricia Medina dies at 92

Starred in 'Mr. Arkadin,' adventure films

By Variety Staff

Patricia Medina, an actress best known for lead roles in
Orson Welles' "Mr. Arkadin" and a variety of adventure films of the
1950s and for her marriage to actor Joseph Cotten, died Saturday, April 28, in
Los Angeles of natural causes. She was 92.

Medina played Kitty in the 1948 version of "The
Three Musketeers" that starred Gene Kelly and Lana Turner, starred
opposite Donald O'Connor in 1950's "Francis," the first in the
talking mule comedy film series, starred with Karl Malden in the Edgar Allan
Poe-based mystery horror film "Phantom of the Rue Morgue" (1954) and
was the female lead in Welles' 1955 "Mr. Arkadin" (aka
"Confidential Report").

The beautiful actress with the dark, exotic looks was
very busy in the early 1950s, starring in swashbuckling adventures
"Fortunes of Captain Blood" (1950), "The Lady and the
Bandit" (1951), "Lady in the Iron Mask" (1952) and "Captain
Pirate" (1952), all opposite actor Louis Hayward. She also starred in
"Abbott and Costello in the Foreign Legion," "Aladdin and His
Lamp" and "Siren of Bagdad," among others.

The British-born Medina began her movie career with small
roles in English film in the late 1930s. She worked steadily during the 1940s
and had her first lead role in British comedy "Don't Take It to
Heart" opposite Richard Greene, the British actor whom she had married in
1941. Medina's first American film was the 1946 Claudette Colbert-Walter
Pidgeon starrer "The Secret Heart." She had a supporting role in
"The Foxes of Harrow," starring Rex Harrison, the following year. Her
first lead role in a Hollywood film was in "Francis."

By the mid-'50s Medina was transitioning into roles on
American television, appearing on "The Ford Television Theatre,"
"G.E. True Theater," "Perry Mason" and the TV series
adaptation of "The Third Man." She also recurred on
"Zorro."

Medina had divorced Richard Greene in 1951, and she
married actor Joseph Cotten in 1960 at a ceremony held at the Beverly Hills
home of David O. Selznick and Jennifer Jones. The Cottens subsequently toured
in several plays together; Medina made her Broadway debut in 1962 in the
mystery play "Calculated Risk," starring Cotten.

Returning to the bigscreen, the actress had an
interesting supporting role as a dominatrix in Robert Aldrich's controversial
1968 lesbian melodrama "The Killing of Sister George."

Also during the 1960s she guested on TV series including
"Rawhide," "Have Gun -- Will Travel," "The Alfred
Hitchcock Hour" and "The Man From U.N.C.L.E."

Patricia Paz Maria Medina was born in Liverpool to an English
mother and Spanish father. She remained married to Cotten until his death in
1994.

About Me

Born in Toledo, Ohio in 1946 I have a BA degree in American History from Cal St. Northridge. I've been researching the American West and western films since the early 1980s and visiting filming sites in Spain and the U.S.A. Elected a member of the Spaghetti Western Hall of Fame 2010.